Restricted Brands on Amazon
- Note that Amazon does NOT publish a list of these items. I've compiled
this from various sources. If you list any of these brands the system will
usually block you from doing so. If you do somehow manage to list one of
these items and Amazon finds out, they'll kill your listing and issue a
policy warning.

Jordan Malik is having a
Christmas in July 50%-off sale
on three of his best-selling products. The sale runs from today through July 18th.,
and this will be his only sale in 2017.

The sale includes:

Cleer Platinum -
to find great online deals to resell. Cleer Platinum is easy to use
software (works on MAC and PC) and comes with over $97 worth of
helpful bonuses.

Check Permission
- a tool that checks if you are allowed to sell something on Amazon
before you buy, and

Intellizon,
a tool that lets you spy on your competitors and see what the
top-500 sellers on Amazon are selling.

This sale actually ended July 8th, but Jordan has agreed to hold
it open a bit longer for my readers. The sale price is 50% off until
July 18th. All three products come with a
"no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee.
Here is a link
to read more about the products.

Put the power of Pinterest into your sales quiver. Discover How to Drive
Traffic Easily To Your Products, Stores, Websites & Blogs Using
The POWER of Pinterest
.
Let others do your marketing for you. My friend, John Bullard has worked
with Teresa Rose to develop a complete course in using Pinterest to
increase your eBay, Amazon and product sales. They are offering a low
introductory price that will go up in about a week or so. You can
read about the Power of Pinterest here
.

Free storage fees from Amazon. Amazon recently announced a special offer:

Sellers can create FBA listings and ship inventory for new-to-Amazon ASINs from qualifying product categories between July 15 and September
30, 2017, and FBA will reimburse storage fees incurred up to $50 on
qualifying ASINs during that period.

To qualify for this promotion, create FBA listings and ship inventory to an
Amazon fulfillment center between July 15 and September 30, 2017.

The storage fees on qualifying inventory will be charged to your account.
Storage fees on eligible products, however, will be reimbursed only during
the promotional period - July 15, 2017 to September 30, 2017.

Note: New listings created by bundling or multi-packing do not apply to this promotion -only single new
products count.

After acquiring Whole Foods, Amazon has turned its attention to fashion
sales with their new Prime Wardrobe Service's, Try before you buy
program. This program (now only for Prime members) allows customers to try
on clothing at home before committing to buy.

I find this interesting because, if they let sellers participate, clothing
has one of the highest return rates on Amazon. I think this could have a
positive effect on that.

In more fashion news, Amazon has not made an announcement, but they are
approaching major clothing brands to get them to sell direct on Amazon.
This means the future for fashion sellers may be buying generic and
branding under your own private label. (I can't confirm if this is true,
but I am hearing that Amazon is making deals with the fashion brands for
lower fees and storage costs).

Be very careful listing existing items on Amazon using the UPC code on the
product. Just last week, I started selling a new kind of pet treats I
hadn't carried before. When I went to Add a product, I typed in
the UPC code that was on the package, and the item came up with an
existing. I looked at the name and package and it looked the same -but I
skipped examining the fine details. What I didn't notice was the treats
listed on Amazon were described in the bullets as a 10-ounce package. But
my packages were only 8-ounces. To make a long story short, I listed them
and they started selling immediately. But, about 10 days or so after my
first sale, I got an email from seller performance saying they had
cancelled my listing because the product I was selling was different than
the product described on Amazon.

The manufacturer had changed the content size of the item, but used the
same UPC code.

Amazon Early Reviewer Program replaces incentivized reviews. As you know,
Amazon recently changed their review policy (again) to no longer allow any
type of incentivized reviews.

You can find information about the Early Reviewer Program
here
.
(You must be signed into Seller Central to view this link). Under this
program, Amazon will provide the incentive in the form of an Amazon Gift
Card in an amount between $1.00 and $3.00 no matter what the review is
(from 1 to 5 stars).

Originally, sellers were able to submit products for review, but Amazon has
decided to select products to review randomly from now on.

Unfortunately, I will be in the middle of moving into our new house at that
time - so I can't join you this year. However, I do want to point out one
thing - The Virtual Assistant company that I use and endorse, 2 nd Office,
from the Philippines, will be exhibiting in the
vendor's area. If you have any need for a virtual assistant or for help
creating eBay and Amazon listings, please drop in and say hello (and be
sure to mention my name).

Unless you have been living on Jupiter for the last few months, you have
probably heard of Private Labeling (PL). Everyone is familiar with Brand
Name merchandise. Private Labeling (PL) is nothing more than creating your
own brand and marketing it.

Unlike many methods of selling on eBay and/or Amazon, PL is not a fad and
is here to stay. Private Labeling works equally well on eBay and Amazon,
but I am going to concentrate on Amazon because Amazon has some special
challenges. Once your PL product and brand is ready -it is an easy thing to
list it on eBay.

You may be wondering why someone would buy your brand, when they could buy
a well-known one? Although the economy is improving, times are still tough
for many people -and these folks are seeking value and bargains.

So how do we go about creating PL products? You might think that the first
step is picking a brand, but you would be wrong. The first thing you need
to do is pick a product category. This -and the eventual product you
select, will influence your creation of a brand.

If you are new to Amazon, or your account has some performance challenges,
I suggest you stick with categories that do not require approval
such as Patio, Lawn and Garden,
Home & Kitchen, Arts & Crafts Supplies, Sporting Goods and
Electronics. Categories such as jewelry, shoes, gourmet food, clothing and
fashion accessories (handbags, gloves, scarves, et.) are not good
candidates for your first PL attempt.

There are two ways to go with PL. 1) Finding a manufacturer who will PL his
goods for you (These are surprisingly easy to find), or 2) creating your
own product (There are two ways to do this and we will discuss both).

The first way involves locating a manufacturer who will PL their products
for you. There are thousands of companies who will do this. They take their
product, use your label and/or packaging, and send you the product ready to
ship. There are some costs for doing this, but even with those added costs,
your cost typically ends up costing less than the wholesale cost for a
branded product.

The other way is, some PL manufacturers will ship their products to you
blank with no label and/or packaging and give you permission to create your
own labels and packaging and sell them under that brand. This gives you
more control and is in some ways easier, but obviously it can be more
expensive and time consuming.

How do you find manufacturers who will PL for you?

There are three ways -all of them simple:

The business directory, The Thomas Register has a
special section
listing PL manufacturers

Simply Google the term private label manufacturers and you
will come up with hundreds of manufacturers who will do this. If
you add a product name such as private label manufacturers, tools, you will get fewer and
more specific results.

It turns out that PL manufacturers have a trade association -the
Private Label Manufacturers Association,
PLMA

The last one, the PLMA has trade shows on a regular basis. The next one is in
Rosemont, Nov. 12 to 14. There will be over 300
vendors exhibiting who are looking for PL customers (like you) they can
work with.

The second method of doing PL, is to do it yourself. This involves finding
generic products, creating a PL brand (including retail packaging) and
selling them.

The way I do this is, first I look on Amazon to find a product with a good
sales rank in a category I sell in. In my case, I have a lot of Kitchen
products (Both branded and Private Labeled), so that is a natural place to
start.

I go through the Kitchen category on Amazon and look for products with a
sales rank better than 1000 in the category (Each category is different,
but Home and Kitchen includes just over 50,000 items. So, 1000 is in the
top 2% of all the items in that category which is where I want to be.

When I was looking at small kitchen appliances, I came across immersion
blenders (AKA Stick Blenders).

Several of them have a sales rank of 500 or less which is excellent at the
top 1% of the category.

Now that I know that stick blenders are a viable product, I need to find
one I can source and put my label on. For that, I look at Aliexpress.com.
Aliexpress.com is a website owned by Alibaba. The difference is, they sell
in smaller quantities. (as few as 1 or 2).

Look at the image below to see just a few of the results I got when I
searched Stick Blenders on Aliexpress. Don't worry about the pricing you
see. When you negotiate a quantity deal such as 50, those prices will drop
as much as 75%.

Once I decide on a product, I have to think up a brand and design a logo. For
a logo, I head to
LogoYes Ė
a site where you can design your own unique
logo using one of the many pre-designed images. Here is a logo I did for my
brand, The Smart Kitchen:

And here is an example of one of my PL products I created and sell under that
name and brand:

But I digress - let's return to how you create your own Private Label
product.

The next step is to do some test marketing. Select one of the stick
blenders from Aliexpress, and buy 4 or 5 of them. When they arrive, if they
are generic (and most products will be), you can list them under your brand
name*. The idea here is not to make a killing selling them. You are doing
test marketing, so you just want to see if they sell.

* [NOTE: You do not have to trademark and register a brand name to use it.
But, just realize, if you do this your brand will not be protected.]

If they sell, you want to contact your agent (I will suggest a couple you
can use), and ask him to negotiate a price for you in a small quantity such
as 25, 50 or 100. You don't want to invest in a large quantity [200 to
500], until you prove the market.

Almost all of these type products come with a retail box, but they are
usually in Chinese. That is OK, because you are going to redesign the box
anyway. Why do I suggest you use an existing box instead of just designing
your own? Because it's cheaper to modify existing artwork, than to start
from scratch.

When your agent sends you the artwork, you are mostly looking at the words
-not the design and product photos. So what you want to do carefully is fix
the wording so that every statement is accurate, spelled correctly and
grammatically correct. Be very careful doing this because redo's can be
expensive

Once you send the artwork back to your agent, he can do two things. He will
get a quote for the design work and a quote for the printing. In both cases
it will cost you far less to do this in China, than it will in the US (or
UK).

I realize you are only going to need 50 boxes, but when you get a printing
quote, you will learn that 50 is the same price as 500. So get the 500. If
these sell well, you will be reordering in the future, and you will not
have the cost of boxes.

Once your box is printed, ask your agent to get you a sample in the box, so
you can examine it the same way a customer would. This is your last chance
to make changes.

Next - just place your order. If I were only ordering 50, air freight will
be very close to ocean shipment, because the order is so small. When you
get to the point that you are importing several hundred at a time, then
ocean freight will be a lot cheaper.

Just one more thing: Above in my NOTE, I said you did not have to trademark
and register a brand to use it on eBay or Amazon. This is true unless you
want to register yourself as the brand holder on Amazon (or participate in
Intellectual property protection on eBay). If you want to do either of
those things, then you must trademark your brand.

If you need an agent, here are a couple of names for you, Bruce Wang () and Eric Lo ().

So that is about it. Follow these steps and your venture into PL should be
successful.

You may think storage boxes are a mundane product, but they are easy to source
and are big sellers on both eBay and Amazon. Before we get started, letís
look at a few sold items on eBay and some listings on Amazon.

As you can see, there are a large variety of containers of varying prices on
both eBay and Amazon. All of these boxes are new, but there are used boxes
selling as well (Mostly on eBay Ė not so much on Amazon). Here are some used
items that have sold recently on eBay:

Since there are two markets, new and used, let me talk about them
separately.

New

The variety of storage boxes is huge - there are all kinds and sizes.
Probably the biggest sellers are boxes for the home including clothing and
tool and parts storage boxes for the garage or workshop..

Where to find them:

Believe it or not, one of the most popular brands selling online is Ikea.
Sellers go to Ikea and look for boxes that come in various sizes and create
a bundle of three or four (or even more) sizes. Then, they double (or more)
what they paid for them. You would think that people would just visit their
nearest Ikea store and buy them. But remember, not everyone lives near an
Ikea store, and there are plenty of people who just want it now, or prefer
to buy online to save time and gas money.

Home depot is another source
(examples here).
Also, almost every Home Depot has a clearance section where prices are
often 25% to 40% of retail. You have to go into the store to find them.
Typically, Clearance items are on an end cap in the back of the aisle where
a product is displayed. If you don't see any, be sure and ask an employee
as they are often hidden. (Note: Home Depot allows you to register your
sales tax number so you can buy without paying tax).

Rubbermaid is one of the largest and most popular brands. They sometimes
sell direct - but mostly use a network of wholesale distributors around the
country. If you
visit their website,
you can use their
Contact us
form to ask for the name of your local distributor so you can buy them
wholesale.

Used

The largest market for used boxes and storage items are for vintage items.
Look for storage boxes that have designs on them or are branded with
company names. Most of the vintage storage boxes or containers you will
find are wood.

Another big seller of used containers is Vintage Tupperware.

Here are a few examples of sellable storage containers

Older wooden boxes without designs, and/or brand names, also sell quite
well - just for not as much money.

Where to find

Your best source of used boxes and storage containers tends to be thrift
shops and garage sales. Another good source is Craigslist.

Sales Tips:

Condition is everything. I never buy goods that are damaged in any way
(except very minor blemishes or scratches), and I give each piece a
thorough cleaning before I photograph and sell it. Good condition can often
double the value.

Remember shipping can be a challenge and costly, so I would look for
smaller boxes that are easy to pack and ship. (Try to stay under 20
pounds).

We all want to be happy and successful, but our personal attitudes and
habits often get in the way. Let's look at a few things we can do to change
that.

Invest in diet and exercise.
There is an old saying that Your body is your temple. It
turns out that is true. I didn't follow this tip, and I can tell
you I am paying for it as I get older. It comes down to three
things: (I am not going to get into details with these three, as
there is plenty of information available).

Watch your diet. Eating healthy will not only make you feel
better, it will have long-term health benefits.

Get some exercise. You don't have to become an athlete, just do
something that gets you off your butt and makes you move. Walking
is excellent.

Avoid destructive habits such as smoking, drugs and too much alcohol.

Negative people are destructive - avoid them if you can.
Negative people are colleagues, friends and family members who
tell you you can't make it, or constantly point out all the reasons
you could fail.

Their opinions and comments are usually destructive. Since often,
these folks are family or co-workers. You can't avoid them, and you
don't want stress at work or within your family -so this is how you
handle them:

When they start talking about your plans or business and all the
ways you can fail, pay attention. Look at them and nod your head as
they speak. When they are finished, say something like: "Wow, you
make some good points. Let me think on that a while." Then forget
everything they said, and get back to working on your business.

Keep an open mind.
Don't be trapped by convention or the habits of others. There is an
old saying I really hate: "Think outside the box." If you do that,
you are admitting there are constraints and you will be looking for
creative and imaginative ways to deal with them. Instead, my
favorite saying is: "Throw the box away." Ignore any conventions
and/or restraints. Make you plans as if a "box" never existed.

Watch your budget and spending.
Money is the cause of more stress, uncertainty and unhappiness
than any other factor in your life (and business). We all come up
against things we can't control, but our spending and savings
habits are not one of them.
Here are some tips to help you
.

Reducing your spending and debts will free your mind and your
spirit, and allow you to concentrate on your business venture.

As part of this, the other thing you want to do is save up some
money. A survey by the US Department of Labor found that only 22%
of the people they asked could come up with $1000 cash in the next
30 days to handle an emergency.

Take Responsibility for Your Actions.
Ultimately, you are responsible for your choices. Recognizing
that is a major factor in your happiness and business success. Too
often we tend to think when bad things happen to us, that the cause
was beyond our control, or someone else's fault. When nothing could
be farther from the truth. Blaming others for our problems is a
sure path to failure.

As Confucius said: "Attack the evil that is within yourself, rather
than attacking the evil that is in others." Although he was talking
about evil, his advice also applies to being responsible for
everything you do and approaching it that way.

You have all heard the saying: "Bad things happen to good people."
That is just another way of saying "I am a victim," or "It's not my
fault."

If something bad happens to you, it is usually because you created
a situation where it could. It's like walking through a dangerous
part of town at night, and when you are mugged, saying it was the
mugger's fault. That's like walking across the African Serengeti
Plain alone, and blaming the Lion when he eats you.

Think Long-term and think big!
Within reason, if you can dream it -you can do it. There is nothing
wrong with dreaming as long as you are looking at something that is
possible.

Too many of us think short-term, and we forget to plan for where we
want to be next month and next year. Doing this makes it certain
you will experience failures along the way. There is nothing wrong
with that, as long as you learn from your failures and don't repeat
them.

Set Both Short and long-term goals.
This relates to number 6, above. I do know a few folks who have
been successful without setting goals, but I know many more who
are.

It's fine to have a long-term goal such as sell $100,000 a month on
eBay or Amazon, but you will have a better chance of hitting that
if you set some interim short-term goals. You might start with
"Sell $10,000 a month and raise it by $5,000 every couple months.
Yes, it will take a while, but you will have a much better chance
of hitting your long-term goal of $100,000 if you do it in steps.

Some rules for goals:

Goals should be achievable.

Goals should be measurable

Write your goals down and track them

If you don't do that last one, the time you spent thinking up and
writing down your goals was meaningless

There is no Silver Bullet -
I often get email from folks looking for that set-it-and-forget-it
business that runs on autopilot and you can make money while you
sleep.

I have been selling online since 1999 (18 years), and I have yet to
find a business that can do that. The cold hard truth is there is no substitute for hard work. You have all heard
the saying, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

As someone who has been doing this for several years, I see ads for
products and systems that make unreasonable promises all the time.
I have yet to see one that is legitimate, or that works -so stop
looking for it!

Focus on your business.
This relates to number 8, above. Too many of us lose focus by
looking for the latest system or trend. The best advice I can give
you is, to stick with one thing at a time with laser focus, until
you master it.

There will always be other opportunities, so don't fall for "This
is a one-time offer, you must act now." There is not a day that
goes by where I do not receive a sales pitch for some new
money-making system. Because it's my job, I do look at them and
evaluate them -but I can tell you, new systems that actually work
(and I would endorse) are quite rare.

I am constantly getting offers from sellers who offer to pay me to
recommend their program. I can tell you, I turn down over 98% of
them. The ones I do tend to recommend are not new money-making
methods, but tools to help do jobs better such as selling on eBay
or Amazon.

Forget being perfect -it's undoable.
Too many of us strive for perfection and refuse to proceed with
our plans until we reach it. Well, I can tell you that when it
comes to starting and running an online business, perfection is
just not possible.

There is a very famous quote popularized by Voltaire in 1770: Perfect is the enemy of good.

If you want to succeed, it is OK to do some basic research and
planning, but at some point your planning is good enough. If you
want to start a business -you have to start your business.

When you look beneath the surface of people who just can't seem to
get started, no matter how much research and planning they do, you
usually uncover fear of failure. You have to realize, you
will make mistakes and have setbacks - we all do. I have been doing
this nearly 20 years, and I still make mistakes. The trick is to
learn from them and make sure you don't repeat them.

There is no perfect product or supplier. There is no perfect sales
system. There is no perfect research tool. The truth is that
running an online business is a continuing learning process. At
some point, you just have to dive in and get started.

One last tip: Find some time to kick back and relax. Being a workaholic is
good up to a point. But, if you burn out that can be a major setback. If
you have a family or significant other, be sure and find some time for
them.

So there you have it: My advice for leading a happier and more successful
life and succeeding in your own business.

If you have been selling online a while, you may know most of this, but I
get questions from my readers often enough that I know there is some
confusion out there. So here are the basics.

With the millions of products available, how does a seller keep track of
their inventory? Businesses usually hire employees who manually track
inventory and merchandise. Bar codes changed this. You can scan inventory
as it comes in -and, as it goes out (sales). This can give you a running
total of your inventory.

Bar codes, technically called, Global Trade Item Numbers (GTIN's),
are unique product identifiers, which make obtaining product information
across different databases and platforms easier. It's a symbol, which, when
scanned, will show the unique attribute of a product. The most common type
of bar code in the US is a UPC code

With bar codes, operational efficiency is achieved because these allow
faster and more accurate recording of information. This means time is
saved, errors are reduced and costs are cut. Besides these benefits,
putting barcodes on your products enables you to meet regulations on
selling platforms such as Amazon, that require unique identifiers on most
products.

Identifier Codes on Amazon (UPC, EANs and ISBNs)

As a general rule, you need a code of some type to list a product on
Amazon. Amazon requires this in order to eliminate duplicate product
listings and incorrect search matches. Note, Amazon needs only the number
-not the barcode art, unless you are co-mingling products or allowing
Amazon to prep them for you. There are five main types of codes used on
Amazon

International Standard Book Number (ISBN) -- This is found on
Books, CDs and DVDs. They can come in either 13 or 10-digit
numbers.

Universal Product Codes (UPC's)-This code system was developed in
the United States and has been widely used in North America, UK,
Australia and New Zealand

European Article Number (EAN)-This is a European modification of
the UPC system invented by the French, and is also used worldwide
for products that are sold at retail point of sale.

Japanese Article Number (JAN)-This is what product identification
numbers in Japan are called.

Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN)-Amazon assigns its own
code to items that are uploaded into their inventory. This is a
code system unique to Amazon. If you know the ASIN of a product,
you can type it into the Amazon search box and the product will
come up.

Amazon requires a UPC, EAN or ISBN number for almost any product you list
on Amazon. If you want to sell an item that does not have a UPC number, or
if you are creating a unique item such as a bundle of products, then you
will need to purchase a UPC number.

Note - If you are creating an item on Amazon that requires you to purchase
a UPC number, you only need the number - not the actual bar code graphic.
This is because you generate your own bar code label when you create a
shipment to Amazon. That label identifies both the product and who it
belongs to, so Amazon knows who to pay when the item sells.

eBay is just starting to require a UPC or EAN in some categories, but they
have required ISBNs on Books for years.

How to Obtain Bar Codes?

There are several companies who sell UPC and EAN codes. The one I use is
Nationwide Bar Codes .
They have sold over 4 million barcodes (and counting) and 100% of their
codes work fine on Amazon. There are plenty of websites that sell bar
codes, but you have to be careful.

There are very cheap barcodes available from some eBay sellers and from
Chinese suppliers, but many of them are bogus. Many are previously used or just bad
codes. The advantage of Nationwide Bar Codes is that they buy from the
official supplier of Barcodes, GS1.

Ideally, barcodes are integrated into the design of your item, so if what
you will be selling is not yet manufactured, then you may want to send your
barcode to the manufacturer (or box designer) so that the product
identifier will be incorporated with the design. But if your product is
already manufactured, then you can still easily obtain bar code labels. As
I pointed out earlier, you don't really need the bar code art to sell on
eBay & Amazon. (Note: If you are creating a Private Label product from
a generic product -do not use the code on the Generic item).

Bar codes help you achieve operational efficiency, plus, they allow you to
sell in one of the world's busiest online selling platforms.

Seller SKUs

SKU stands for Stock Keeping Unit and it's a number that you generate to help you keep track of your inventory.
There are several systems to create and track SKUs.

Here is one way I do mine:

The first letter stands for the category of product - J for Jewelry, B for
Books, K for Knives and so on.

The next letter is the month I listed the item on eBay or Amazon, so a SKU
that started with B3 would be a book I listed in March.

Next I put the cost of the item. I use the simple "paintbrush" code.
Paintbrush is a ten-letter word with no letters that repeat, so
each letter stands for a number. A SKU that started out B3PNH would be a
book, I sent in March that cost me $1.40. Then I usually come up with some
type of abbreviation to identify the product. So if the book was Tom
Clancy's Hunt for Red October the code might be B3PHH-RO. The RO
would stand for Red October. (Some other ten-letter words with no repeating
letters include: Springvale, Cumberland, Pathfinder, Monkeyspit, Motherland
and Falconview).

If you tend to sell a lot of items from one supplier, another way to go is
to use the initials of the supplier and the part number of the item. So for
my Novobeads jewellery, I might use NB4105. The advantage of this is that I
can search the term Novobeads in my Amazon inventory and the SKUS will come
up in order. So if I sort by quantity, I can see which beads I am out of,
or low on stock, and I have a nice list with the part numbers to place on
my order sheet. See image below:

888 Digital
has announced its refurbished equipment catalog that will allow sellers to
take advantage of Amazon's new Refurbished Goods Program. Sellers can buy
as few as 1 piece at a time.

SunStaches
sells a really clever line of novelty sunglasses that include many licensed
characters including Despicable Me. I remember seeing this company when
they presented on Shark Tank.

Windbridge Power
is a website that sells a range of Bluetooth products related to mobile
devices. The prices on the website are retail, but if you use the Contact
Us form and send them a message, they will send you a price list with
prices that are substantially lower.

Sun Day Greetings
sells smart, beautiful photographic greeting cards for all occasions. This
is another retail website where you have to contact the company to get
wholesale pricing and ordering information.

Please Note:
Some of the products and
services mentioned in this website, in articles, banner ads and
newsletters and blog posts are for products and services for which I
earn a referral fee or commission. We always evaluate anything we
recommend very carefully and each year we turn down literally dozens
of opportunities to recommend products or services where we can earn
a commission. Even though we earn a fee on some of our
recommendations, we only recommend products and services that we
feel will deliver good value and with rare exceptions, they all come
with a money back guarantee.